Group TenProblem and solution overviewContextual inquiry descriptions and resultsInquiry #1: Co-op residents watching reruns together in the shared TV roomInquiry #2: Friends watching reruns together on a computer monitorInquiry #3: Friends watching reruns together in a living roomAnalysis of new and existing tasksInterface DesignGroup TenRishi Chopra, cs160-arAmit Bakshi, cs160-aqCynthia Prentice, cs160-auBen Hartshorne, cs160-bnContextual Inquiry and Task Analysis Problem and solution overviewFor Simpsons fans, the internet is a gold-mine. However, the data that is out there is spread very thin, across a large number of sites and protocols. Fans chat about the Simpsons over IRC (Internet Relay Chat), sometimes even watching an episode while chatting. Fans can read up on hidden jokes and movie references on numerous websites. While watching the Simpsons in a group, many fans enjoy displaying their knowledge of the episode by bringing up bits of trivia, yelling out the lines along with the characters. But these different activities are disparate, and require much time and internet expertise in order to accomplish.We propose to build a “one-stop shop” for Simpsons fans to enjoy the show online. We will build an archive of Simpsons episodes on our site, allowing users to search and browse for the episodes they care to watch. While watching a stream of the show, users will be able to chat and play trivia games with other users that are concurrently watching the same episode. Additionally, we will add to the Simpsons experience by providing the users with timely trivia and explanations of jokes and references. In depth information relating to an episode will also be available. All of this will contained within an easy-to-use, easy-to-learn interface.Contextual inquiry descriptions and resultsWe chose to perform our contextual inquiries on three groups of fans watching the Simpsons. We observed how people interacted while watching the Simpsons, what kind of additional activities people engaged in while watching the show, and how people obtained additional information. We were interested both in how people search for that information as well as how they interact with each other while watching the show. We hope to incorporate both environments in our product. Inquiry #1: Co-op residents watching reruns together in the shared TV roomAt the UC Berkeley chapter of the Cloyne co-op, it is ritual for residents to meet in the TV room every weekday immediately after dinner to watch reruns of the Simpsons together. Typically, 5 to 15 residents participate in this activity. While watching the episode people call out interesting trivia related to the particular episode and The Simpsons in general. They would say things like, “Did you catch what was on the coverof the TV guide on Homer’s coffee table?” because they wanted to both find out more about the details of the episode and point out things that other people may have missed. Almost all the people who were watching the episode had seen it before, so there was interest in the more hidden jokes and references as well as the general storyline. While watching episode reruns there was a demand to find out and share “expert” information, so that viewers were getting more than an exact repetition of the material. As soon as the episode was over the group dispersed: a more serious fan took us to his room and showedus how he watches and collects the Simpsons on his computer. He had a variety of visualmedia stored on his computer, organized into folders that he shares with the co-op. He had individual folders for different TV series. For example, he had a folder for Futurama, a folder for The Simpsons, and one for music videos. Within the Simpsons folder he had 50 or 60 episodes labeled by title. He did not group the episodes, but he was able to find what he wanted because he was very familiar with the content on his computer. When one of his neighbors came into watch an episode with him, they discussed what happenedin the episode, until he knew which episode his neighbor was talking about, then he played it, routed to his own personal TV and stereo system for a larger screen and better sound quality. Because there was a large fan base for the Simpsons within the co-op, he and others in the co-op trade episodes with each other by making them public on a server.When he cannot get all the Simpons information he wants from his neighbors, he frequents Simpsons fan sites for trivia and chats in the Simpsons IRC channel. Inquiry #2: Friends watching reruns together on a computer monitorWe met up with another cognitive science major who is an avid collector of Simpsons episodes on his computer. We observed how he obtained the episodes and other Simpsonsinformation and what he did with it afterwards. We began by looking at his existing collection. Once his hard drive was filled up with episodes of the Simpsons and South Park, he began burning the episodes onto dozens of CDs. The episodes, which fit approximately 20 to a CD, are largely uncategorized and unsorted. He had one TV series per disk and attempted to arrange them by season. He sometimes has friends over to watch the episode of their choice on his computer. In fact, he had two friends over for that reason at the time of the inquiry. He also likes to search for other episodes while watching an old rerun. He has the episode that is playing take up a small corner of his screen while he uses the rest of the space to search for new episodes. He undergoes a two-step process to do this. He first has to find the name and number of the episode. To find this, he goes to SNPP.com where he can enter a line of dialogue and receive a list of episodes that contains that line in its script. He chooses the episode he wants from that list. Once he has the episode title and number, he looks on underground fan sites or in an IRC chat for the episode. He also often gets them from a friend’s ftp. If he does not find the exact episode he is looking for, he browses through the existing episodes on his hard drive. It can be a lengthy process to locate a specific episode, so he finds it useful to havean episode playing as he is searching. If he is not looking for a new episode, he likes to look up trivia while watching the Simpsons. While an episode in the corner of the screen, he looks up episode guides on the internet to find information relating to the specific episode he is watching. He was very
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